To change may accent so my kids speak 'properly'

[madchocolatemum48]

My childhood accent isn't awful, just very colloquial really.
I have lived away from 'home' off and on for years so my accent has mellowed.
I have deliberately started 'speaking properly' so my children will have a nicer speaking voice.
If we move back 'home' how will my kids be perceived ??

as normal human beings. not what their accent sounds like. I think this is your own issues eing projected onto your kids. Please identify what speaking properly means exactly? Sounding like Googie Withers in a film from 1948?

Lots of people would say YANBU.

But mightn't your children pick up the idea that somehow your childhood accent is 'not proper' and the associated attitudes - which could be tough on your family if presumably they still speak that way?

It seems a shame to me, TBH. Realistically, won't they just learn 'mummy has once voice for posh and another when she forgets/is tired/whatever'?

My accent is pure East End London. My son speaks NOTHING like me - his is well-modulated 'ordinary' with a touch of Devon !

As I said, over the years my accent has mellowed because I haven't lived in my childhood area for about 20 years.
The I don't have 'a Hyacinth Bucket telephone voice' and a normal voice either.
When I said 'proper' I meant enunciating properly.

I'm Northern Irish in England.

DD is 2 and because she's still at home with me most of the time sounds quite Northern Irish too although she changes the pronunciation of certain words depending on who's around :)

Of course to me, Northern Irish is talking "properly"

I'll keep all the videos of her with my accent as no doubt as soon as she starts school it'll change very quickly!

I'm reasonably well spoken with a hint of London. My DD is so well spoken I honestly don't know where she gets it from.

I think your peers have a huge influence on your accent. My mother has a very RP accent, my sisters who started school in Berkshire sound very BBC english. I started school in Kent, and have a bastardised London accent. My dh is a Lundoner wiv a Lundon accent. Innit.

My children have been raised in Somerset, they have accents that are very middle england, with occasional izummerzet twangs.
Dh reckons ds (14) sounds exactly like Micheal Portillo

If you are using words like 'kids' rather than 'children' then they aren't ever going to speak correctly.

Michael - its Michael not Micheal.

I still live in the town I was born and raised in. Dh moved here when he was a baby so has a true local accent.

All my DC's are being brought up here. The 2 youngest of my 5 Dc's don't speak with a local accent.
DS is 15 and is well spoken, not posh but def not our local accent.
DD is 10 and has pronounces bath and laugh as Barth and larf, which is so far removed from our accent it sound odd, but I never correct her as its just what she hears everyday.

We were having a discussion the other day about this and put it down to the fact that so many people have moved to our town from so many different places that most of their friends are not local.

There is such a mix of accents that have all blended together to make a unique accent at school and as they spend most of their time there is only natural that they don't speak with a local accent.

I don't mind how they speak, they are who they are. It may change as they get older, it may not. It's no big deal.

I agree with guanosoup - DH has a lancs accent, though it is not strong and I have a Cockney/Essex accent (again not strong). DS(nearly 6) is starting to sound pretty Yorkshire now (we live in Teesside), he even used the phrase "a canny bit" correctly even though it's not a phrase DH and I use!
Bohemian girl - that's a bit harsh

My DM has a phone voice. It used to make me cringe when I was young. She is pretty well spoken (recently retired from teaching) but when she gets angry or is very amused, her accent gets much stronger. We're Glaswegian and I don't have a particularly strong accent, but it is there and I wouldn't want to lose it. I love different accents!

Do you know what pisses me off about MN? People picking up on other peoples spelling mistakes.
Its not big and its not clever...

Oh we have a lot of Pakistani children at DS's school, may of whom whose parents were born and raised in Pakistan, yet the children sound pretty Yorkshire

I love it when my three-year-old comes out with "YES!" ("Yiss") and "What's in here?" ("Wot'zin hi-ir?" in a thick New Zealand accent, despite having spent most of her life in England and other chillier climes.

I speak like a southerner but people struggle to pin point where I'm from (I've been accused of being from Surrey, to London, to Hampshire, to Berkshire etc) because I've had it knocked into me from a young age to make sure I pronounce things proper like. I'm also doing the same to my children.

I got picked on a bit as a child but as an adult it's really paid dividends.

No harm in speaking properly IMO.

Agree guana!!!

Anyway, unclench OP. there's no need to sit there making gurning faces while you pronounce your Ts and Hs deliberately and slowly.

Just speak naturally and be done with it

Absolutely, guano - it's not big or clever indeed. And I might even say it reflects the creepily classist, pompous side of MN that really gets my goat.

Does it matter how your children (child) speak?

I think you'll find that they usually take on the accent of those around them at school/local area rather than the accents at home.

My older 3 have proper Manc accents even though I don't and neither does their dad but it was where they were brought up.

I have a very strong East Midlands accent. I love it, even though I don't speak "properly". DH is from Devon and speaks "properly". I have no idea what sort of accent DS will end up with (7mo). I'm not going to change mine when I talk to him though. If he pronounces words like I do, it's fine with me.

I have broad 'savvern' accent, which I do endeavour to keep a lid on in certain circumstances.

3 year old DD does pick up on it though and I do catch her saying things like "I've got a hat on me 'ead".

BohemianGirl, 'Micheal' is a fairly common derivative spelling of 'Michael'.

It won't matter accent is to do with we're you live, class and were you go to school

My oh is very posh Boris Johnson sounding however our children will not speak like this due to we're we live and our class

Bohemiangirl Really?!

That sounds incredibly pretentious. I use 'kids' instead of 'children'. I doubt very much whether anyone would shake their heads at that.

One person's idea of correct is very different to another person's.

Unless they never go to school or any activities outside of the home, it makes no difference how strong your accent is.
My DD isn't 3 yet and has managed to pick up the local accent from nursery despite both DP and I having accents from outside of the area.